Nadev Kander at Flowers

I have become increasingly interested in Renaissance art over the past several months, partly inspired by a trip to Venice and reinforced by properly discovering more recently the work of Titian. That work was characterised by, amongst other things, a brilliantly developed naturalistic style of painting the female nude, as exemplified by his painting Danae:

So it was extraordinary to walk into Flowers Gallery in Cork Street and be confronted with a series of large, beautiful Renaissance nudes, photographs by Nadev Kander an Israeli-born photographer living and working in London. The exhibition, Bodies, 6 Women, 1 Man consists of a series of large images of nudes. Each of the figures are shown coated in marble dust against a stark black background giving the figure a remarkable sculptural quality. The figures are presented as intimate and vulnerable images, with the vulnerability emphasised in many of the pictures by the model being turned away from the camera or covering their face as it protecting their modesty. The Renaissance connection is emphasised by the naturalistic pose of the models and the fact that these are demonstrably real people beautiful in their own shapes and skins, not conformed to some supposed external ideal.

It is a small and touching exhibition well worth a visit and the gallery also has available an exceptionally well-produced monograph containing all the work in the exhibition and a number of other works from the same series. Worth a visit.